This was supposed to be an easy day. We would ride about 8km to Bitburg, get my bike fixed up, then an easy 30km to Trier.

First part was achieved easily. We found a friendly bike shop, who sorted out my tyre and sold us the proper pumps for our bikes.

By now it was around lunchtime, so we found a nice café and had goulash soup – a favourite all around Germany – for lunch.

Then we hit our second problem in two days with Google maps. It wanted to take us on to a main road. However, it looked more like a motorway than a cycle friendly road. There was no discernible hard shoulder and there were big trucks rumbling along. We decided to follow the minor roads in the general direction of Trier. We soon picked up some nice cycle paths, following a couple of rivers, including the Moselle, but they certainly weren’t the most direct way to Trier!

When we arrived in Trier, we had a couple of beers at a café directly opposite the Porta Negra – the old Roman gate.

Later we had a really good dinner served by a friendly German/Irish waiter.

Accommodation was Hotel Restaurant Balkan, near the banks of the Moselle.